Sheet metal strip feeding apparatus are well-known in which coils of wound strip material are disposed horizontally on a rotatable platform in order to unwind the strip for feeding to a processing station, such as for example, a stamping press or the like. If the coils are relatively light weight feeding can be accomplished by means of power operated pinch rolls located downstream of the processing station that pull the strip at a desired rate therethrough, such pulling of the strip causing the platform, which is journalled for rotation, to simply turn under the force of the strip that exits the coil tangentially.
If, on the other hand, the coil is of great weight or if several coils are stacked on the platform in axially-spaced relation, it is necessary to positively drive the platform. Such apparatus normally employ speed control devices including a pivotable arm across which the strip material is looped prior to entering the processing station and which arm is sensitive to tension on the strip to regulate the platform drive in response thereto.
Problems are encountered, however, when it is desired to feed strip material at controlled rates from a horizontally disposed coil on a positively driven platform to a processing station adapted to receive the material in a surface-horizontal attitude. In such instances, it is necessary to twist the strip through ninety degrees between the point it leaves the coil and prior to its entering the processing station. Since sheet metal strip is relatively stiff transversely of its surface twisting can be accomplished only after an adequate amount of material has been unwound from the coil creating the need for a great length of work space.
It is known that the amount of work space required to effect twisting of strip can be reduced if the strip is caused to be removed from the coil in a direction opposite that in which it is fed to the processing station and caused to rise out of the plane of the coil whereby the direction of travel can easily be reversed toward the desired direction. Apparatus capable of performing this function are manufactured by P-A Industries of Bloomfield, Conn. Such apparatus have the undesirable feature, however, that they do not incorporate a positively driven platform and, therefore, cannot accommodate coils of great weight or a construct of stacked coils.
It is an improved apparatus of the described type capable of positively driving the rotatable platform at controlled rates in order to accommodate coils of great weight or multi-coil constructs that the present invention is directed.